Stories and Stone: Writing the Ancestral Pueblo Homeland

by Reuben Ellis (Editor)

Overview

Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde, Hovenweep . . . For many, such historic places evoke images of stone ruins, cliff dwellings, pot shards, and petroglyphs. For others, they recall ancestry. Remnants of the American Southwest's ancestral Puebloan peoples (sometimes known as Anasazi) have mystified and tantalized explorers, settlers, archaeologists, artists, and other visitors for centuries. And for a select group of writers, these ancient inhabitants have been a profound source of inspiration.

Collected here are more than fifty selections from a striking body of literature about the prehistoric Southwest: essays, stories, travelers' reports, and poems spanning more than four centuries of visitation. They include timeless writings such as John Wesley Powell's The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Tributaries and Frank Hamilton Cushing's "Life at Zuni," plus contemporary classics ranging from Colin Fletcher's The Man Who Walked Through Time to Wallace Stegner's Beyond the Hundredth Meridian to Edward Abbey's "The Great American Desert." Reuben Ellis's introduction brings contemporary insight and continuity to the collection, and a section on "reading in place" invites readers to experience these great works amidst the landscapes that inspired them. For anyone who loves to roam ancient lands steeped in mystery, Stories and Stone is an incomparable companion that will enhance their enjoyment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816523665
Publisher:	University of Arizona Press
Publication date:	03/01/2004
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Reuben Ellis is Associate Professor of English at Prescott College, Arizona, and editor of Beyond Borders: The Selected Essays of Mary Austin.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Introduction	1
	The Days of Our Ancients: Imagining the Lives of the Anasazi
	@from "The Native Voice"	19
	from The Delight Makers	21
	from The Land of Poco Tiempo	24
	from "The Days of Our Ancients"	30
	from Runner in the Sun	34
	"Anasazi"	42
	from Crooked Arrow	44
	"A Missive Missile"	48
	Seven Cities of Gold: The Findings of the Early Explorers
	from The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542	53
	from The Report of Hernando de Alvarado	54
	from Kino's Historical Memoir of Pimeria Alta	55
	from The Commerce of the Prairies	57
	from The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Tributaries	59
	from The Crest of the Continent	62
	from The Land of the Cliff Dwellers	65
	Digging into Antiquity: Archaeology, Excavation, and Discovery
	from Richard Wetherill--Anasazi	73
	A letter to F. W. Putnam	78
	from "Life at Zuni"	80
	from Letters of Gustaf Nordenskiold	83
	from Digging in the Southwest	85
	from Men Met Along the Trail	89
	"The Princess Mummy and Other Burials"	93
	from Redeye	98
	"The Blue Mound People"	103
	from A Thief of Time	107
	The Places They Lived: Spending Time in the Ruins
	"The Seventh City of Cibola"	117
	from The Song of the Lark	118
	from The Man Who Walked Through Time	126
	from Martin	132
	"Anasazi Depths"	135
	"Away from the River"	137
	from The Place of Dead Roads	138
	"A Potshard and Some Corn Pollen"	140
	Newer Stories: Antiquity in the Twentieth Century
	from Tierra Dulce: Reminiscences from the Jesse Nusbaum Papers	147
	from D. H. Lawrence in Taos	151
	from The Woman at Otowi Crossing	154
	from "Technically Sweet"	160
	from "Cave to Cave--Canyon to Canyon"	161
	"To Some Few Hopi Ancestors"	163
	Among the Ancients: Dwelling Within the Puebloan Homeland
	from Big Falling Snow	169
	from Dineji Nakee Naahane	170
	from The Bronc People	173
	from "Canyons of Grace"	185
	from The Owl in Monument Canyon	192
	"A Designated National Park"	197
	from "Our Homeland, A National Sacrifice Area"	199
	Stories and Stone: Notes on a Remarkable Landscape
	from "The Great American Desert"	203
	from Beyond the Hundredth Meridian	205
	from Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles	207
	from "Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination"	210
	from "Upper Grand Gulch"	213
	Reading in Place: A Visitor's Guide to Ancient Places of the Southwest
	Visiting with Respect	223
	Sites Mentioned in Stories and Stone	225
	An Index to Sites by Author	231
	References	233
	A Selected Bibliography of Primary Anasazi References	235
	Credits	241

Editorial Reviews

"From timeless writings to contemporary classics, the contributors weave an unforgettable mosaic of a people and a landscape that continues to inspire wanderers and readers even after four centuries." —Tulsa World

From the Publisher